Direct End to End Secure Chat Protocol

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) officially assigned port 4605 to the SixChat End2End Direct secure messaging protocol created by Sixscape Communications, Pte. Ltd. The assignment was issued by IANA on 11th September, 2014, and is listed in the official IANA resource registry at http://www.iana.org/assignments/service-names-port-numbers

There are a very limited number of port numbers, which are assigned by IANA for protocols recognized as viable, complying with current protocol design standards, and not already covered by existing Internet standards. For example, port 25 was assigned to the SMTP email protocol many years ago. This provides a standard port and reduces conflicts with other protocols. The technical review of the SixChat protocol was performed by Lars Eggert, the distinguished chair of the Internet Research Task Force.

The SixChat messaging protocol was created by Lawrence E. Hughes, co-founder and CTO of Sixscape Communications, for their SixChat Internet application software. The new protocol allows two SixChat User Agents to connect directly, perform mutual authentication with X.509 client digital certificates and then securely exchange a symmetric session key (for encryption of all content). SixChat uses the company’s Identity Registration Protocol (IANA assigned port 4604) for address registry and retrieval, as well as Public Key Infrastructure functions (to obtain and use client digital certificates).